Doing the best with what you have....

Work has picked up at a rapid pace after the dramas with the disrespectful English language teacher. I got my money back and am now looking for a better teacher...One who treats adults like professionals, not boot camp attendees....
But in the mean time I have combined my normal workshops on best practice Child Protection with their English language learning...Teaching has been been a lot of hard work and taken me out of my comfort zone...

(My collegaues hard at work with the challenges I set them...)

My main objective in this teaching is to boost their confidence again about learning English, to create an avenue for enthusiasm and a culture of encouragement. I wanted to reinstall the initial induction they were given about professional development and becoming passionate about the deistituionalisation process to see the lives of the children changed for the better.
So with the use of some scrabble tiles (Doing the best with what you have!), we have worked through the alphabet building up a gambit of verbs and adjectives.

For example to attempt to combine the global best practice information, boost their confidence and enthusiasm, teach them english and reinstall their belief in the values of Hope for Himalayan Kids we simply worked through the alphabet and learned words like:

A for attempt: If you merely attempt to speak English in my class, even if you think you got the grammer wrong, then you have succeeded.

B for belong: At HFHK you belong to a team and despite your role, caste, religion, gender, etc you are all treated equally.

C for confidence: We talked about how you can grow your confidence...

D for determination: Not giving up until we have acheived our goal together, deinstitutionalisation oif the child residential centres in Nepal.

E for equality and encourage...

O for observation: Looking with the intention of learning something....

P for protection: How are we protecting the children?

Q for questioning: What are appropriate questioning techniques?

R for rights: What are human rights and child rights?

S for support: What does it mean to support the children, each other, the organisation?

(Every verb, adjective and noun we have learnt so far keeps them thinking about these little monkeys! I love visiting them and cannot wait until they all have proper small families to call their own. Soon they will.)

So we have been discussing everthing directly involved with their actual roles as case workers, accountants, office and data managers, in order to reveal that every role is necessary and important...(This is not a commonly communicated culture in organisations and businesses over here. Heirachy, caste and inequality are everyday, normal practice.)

So I am happy and my colleagues are looking forward to using the words they have learned and moving on to the vital step of using their new vocab in reports by learning past present and past tense rules next (I will start with them and hand over to the potential new teracher for when I leave very soon.) My next challenge is to hire a good teracher and hand my other work (research/policy development etc) to some new interns arriving soon, and the relevant staff at HFHK.

The common challenge of staying on my toes and being thrown into situations that are out of one's comfort zone have been both difficult but equally rewarding. I'm learning the art of making do with what you have, I think it is a beautiful skill to learn, keeps you out of that aweful comfort zone...Plus who dosn't think scrabble is the best game ever created?! Me and my Mom do so why no the Nepalese...

                              

So it is with cautious optimism that I say bring on the next few weeks of challenges, a sprint to leave behind something of worth.... 

(I was in the mood to include a corny cliche motivating happy touristy picture, nice to get out of the office....feel like I'm in a post card sometimes.)

To pour your heart and soul into something…and have it almost slip away…Challenges only make us stronger!

You may remember me talking a little about my roll at Hope for Himalayan Kids being one in regards to capacity building with the new and existing staff members including case managers, data mangers, the accountant etc. The way in which I feel that professional development is going to benefit the organization and in turn the children the quickest was to send 8 of our staff to English Language training at certain reputable institution here in Pokhara. So off they went last Wednesday for their first day of school

 

 (I was like the proud mother sending her loved ones to school, 

even made these profession case workers and accountants do a group photo…)

I had spend a majority of the last two months researching best practice deinstitutionalization documents for the teacher to incorporate into the curriculum once they got past beginner level so they start to use and comprehend global best practice report writing and case notes (about the kids) in English.

The challenge came (to make a very large and emotionally charged story short) when I sat in a couple of lessons this week and was a completely shocked by both the style of teaching and the content of the curriculum. This teacher has (what we now realize a self created excellent reputation in Pokhara). Both my self and my director screened him several times and talked about expectations and what we needed him to provide. We wanted them to be able to read, comprehend and write for the reports and case notes on the orphaned, abandoned and at risk children they will be working with. We wanted this training to be in line with the values and in the context of child protection, equality and human rights.

After sitting in on a couple of classes I realized that reputations and first impressions can be so terribly wrong. The two areas of concern I observed and which were reinforced by staff feedback were about: a) The style in which the teacher was conducting the class, and b) A lot of the English curriculum he was teaching was actually wrong (hard to sit in the corner and observe while biting my lip….more on that in moment)

So first point: The atmosphere and environment in the class room (and this is while I was there so I can imagine he was altering it to be more profession with a foreigner in the room) was like army camp for preschoolers…no more like puppy school actually, but with less love or rewards like schmackos (metaphorically speaking-just a “well done, that was correct, great effort would have done…”)… Anyway, hand gestures to stand up , sit down, stop…He would be an excellent drill sergeant, or king in the 1900s who likes to read dictionaries, pretend to know all the words in them, and then brag even though he doesn’t know the meanings….

What made me most upset was that after only one week in this school the motivation of these new green case workers as well as the existing staff to learn English and develop themselves professionally was peaking on Wednesday…and it had been sucked from them by Sunday. I had worked so hard to teach them about how important professional development is and the mutual benefits for them, the children and the NGO. I worked so hard to set up a culture for them and explain to them about how we will be investing into them and supporting them to be the best they can be to change the lives of the children they will be working with. I had worked so hard to explain in the induction that we value equality and respect and do not distinguish between gender, caste, village group or age in our organization…And to have this contradicted by this training was gut wrenching. Not really the capacity building I was after.

 

The second point of concern (and if I hadn’t just had the meeting to sack this man this morning I could find some of this funny) was that some of what he was teaching was sooooo wrong!!! He would stop my colleagues mid sentence with NO! Wrong! And proceed to give an alternative sentence, to the one they were trying so hard to say. This occurred even when what the student was saying was correct! And then he would either give an alternative way of saying the same thing, or give an incorrect alternative!…

I didn’t bite my lip in those instances I would ask the teacher “Sorry guru, is that a Nepali word you have just given?” He would respond with: “No, English”. I respectfully would answer “Um actually no its not a word guru, that sentence does not make much sence”. Of which he would respond, “Yes it is.”  And move on with the “class”. (Yep, that’s right, the Nepali teacher, with English as his second language was telling me, little English woman in the corner-with English as her first language that he was right and I was wrong). For those who know me well, don’t worry, this man is still with us today with dignity intact and only for the reason that all my precious colleagues were in the room and I have learned that biting my tongue is delicious and useful in international development.

So this morning I professionally went down with my director during what would have been our normal class time to give the feedback, (in a respectful manner-Army camp was only mentioned once by my Nepali Director) and deliver the news that we were pulling our students out of what would have been 3 months of classes with them. When giving the reasons why my ability to deliver constructive feedback kicked in thank the Lord and civil war did not erupt. In fact he took it quite well and I was impressed with his demeanor as Nepali culture as many Asian cultures do, has an element of saving face so he took it well given the cultural context.This challenge took me and is keeping me way out of my comfort zone. This will make me stronger and more well equipped for this type of bump in the road in the future. So new challenges this week:
1)Make an appointment with the manager of the institute in an attempt to get my money back!!! (Policies don’t really exist here, especially when it comes to consumer refunds.)

2) Find a new English Language teacher ASAP
3) Prepare the English Language classes I will now be giving every day until the new and improved teacher is found. PS: My Nepali will be put to the test!

Being taken out of my comfort zone so often has forced me to dig deep to find out just what I can achieve when I focus and not allow irrational draining emotions to get in the way. The capacity I have when options have seemed hopeless has been drawn from some of the amazing people I have met since being here. This week I will come out on top and be stronger for it. Bring on the whole gambit of emotions that will come this week with the challenges that lay a head, satisfaction, happiness, stress, tears and all. Here I feel. Here I am sentient. Bring it on!

Pokhara Street Festival and HFHK Awareness Campaign

So much has happened since Christmas so I'm going to squeeze in everything to get you up to speed. First up the Pokhara New Years Street Festival which has run for the last 6 years and was an absolute riot. Full of different ethnic groups, their music and dancing, many carnival activities (and carny folk-turns out not reserved for the West).The festival was also graced with the presence of the HFHK stall, the platform for an awareness campaign and fundraiser selling some gift cards the children had drawn pictures for and we had prfessionally printed....I will learn to use shorter sentences when I don't have so much to say.....

As the street could get a little crowded with the dancing and festivities........You Just had to learn to hang out with the right type of person....

The Stand did well and we sold a few cards but more importantly we began the epic task of playign a part in educating both the locals and tourists that large children's residential centres (orphanages) are not in the best interest of children and deinstitutionalisation is starting and needs supporting. Because of the miscopnception amongst tourists that cometo Pokhara that the children's centres are these happy places and should be donated to, they don't realise they can be misguiding their resourses of which usually does not reach the children.

The Broshure we printed and handed out (The What, How Why and Who of Deinstitutionalisation) reached the hands of some key individuals, including some key local business owners, some international development students, and also some children's residential centre owners, so I was happy about this.
Once it was dark and the stall was packed up it was time to enjoy what the festival had to offer...

(Thier version of hooky, try and get the bamboo ring over the prize...)

Check out the politically incorrect prizes: ciggies, mini bottles of wisky...super strong red bull cans...100 rupee notes...great for the kids...I loved it!

Great Places to eat... You leave feeling...happy...when not food poisoned....

Places to avoid.....Although I think it is just a trecking business...
And the jusxtoposition of certain atmospheres to soak up:

(Traditional Nepali Dress, so beautiful...but I feel like a giant over here...)